FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT DART GROUP - PAGE 5

Giant Food Inc. is still the dominant supermarket in the Baltimore area, according to a market study released yesterday, despite the Landover-based chain's relatively marginal gains in sales and market share over the last 12 months.The annual study done by Columbia-based Food World magazine showed Giant has about 29 percent of the Baltimore market with $946.2 million in sales. The chain's closest competitor in the area is Super Fresh with 7.3 percent of the market and $237.2 million in sales.

In the latest act in the retail industry's equivalent of "King Lear," Dart Group Corp. Chairman Herbert H. Haft publicly shifted his affections to his younger son, Ronald, four weeks after banishing his eldest son, Robert, from all corporate posts.Ronald Haft, 34, who previously had been involved mostly in the real estate end of the family's business empire, was named to the boards of directors of Crown Books Corp, Trak Auto Corp. and Shoppers Food Warehouse, as well as Dart, the holding company that controls a majority interest in the three chains.

Dart Group Corp. said yesterday that it might pay about $90 million to members of the Haft family to end legal feuding that began when founder Herbert H. Haft fired his son Robert in 1993 as president of the retail company.The money would go toward proposed settlements that will end the Haft family's control of Landover-based Dart and its subsidiaries, which include Crown Books, Trak Auto and Total Beverage, the company said.Dart said members of the Haft family must approve the settlements, and a supplemental agreement must be worked out between Dart and Ronald S. Haft, Herbert's other son.The settlements also must be reviewed by the Delaware Chancery Court, where Herbert Haft, chairman and chief executive of Dart, filed a lawsuit for control of the company.

Dart Group Corp. again sued its chairman, Herbert H. Haft, seeking recompense for the $43 million that the company paid in connection with the 1993 firing of Haft's son, Robert M. Haft.Dart's announcement yesterday marked only the latest of reams of litigation filed by, against and among Dart and the Hafts.Robert Haft won a $38 million judgment from Dart after his father fired him from the president's position, and the company said it also paid more than $5 million in lawyers' fees and other legal costs.

Discount bookseller Crown Books Corp. will emerge from bankruptcy within a month poised to take on its mega-bookstore rivals by undercutting their prices, the Landover-based retailer said yesterday.Crown is also searching for a permanent chief executive officer to replace Anna Currence, a turnaround specialist who successfully steered the company through a 14-month Chapter 11 reorganization. Steve Panagos, a partner with New York-based consulting firm Zolfo Cooper, stepped in yesterday as interim chief executive officer.

U.S. to probe Kodak's claimU.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor is expected to announce Monday a U.S. government probe of charges by Eastman Kodak Co. that the Japanese government is "tolerating" anti-competitive practices in photographic film and paper.The investigation, likely to take months, would center on Kodak's claim that Fuji Photo Film Co., with the tacit approval of Japanese government agencies, is blocking its access to Japanese film and paper distributors.Nations exclude U.S. on trade planLeaving the United States isolated after it rejected a global plan for liberalizing trade in financial services, a large group of industrial and developing nations said yesterday that they favored pressing ahead with the plan on their own.The effort won support from all 15 nations in the European Union, which endorsed it at a hastily convened meeting of ministers last night.

CBS takeover talks reportedWalt Disney Co. has teamed with ex-studio chief Barry Diller in takeover talks with CBS Inc., an entertainment industry newspaper reported yesterday.The Hollywood Reporter, citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was a serious restart in negotiations.Last summer, Mr. Diller, former chief of 20th Century Fox Inc. and former chairman of home shopping network operator QVC Inc., tried and failed to orchestrate a merger.Disney would not comment on the report, and a CBS spokesman and Mr. Diller were not immediately available to comment.

The future of how beer and wine is sold in Howard County could be decided Tuesday nightwhen the county Liquor Board deliberates the fate of a warehouse-style store proposed just south of Ellicott City.Total Beverage, which has three large stores in Northern Virginia, aims to open a store the size of an ice rink in the new Long Gate shopping center at U.S. 29 and Route 103. The store would offer 5,000 kinds of wine and 500 varieties of beer.Total Beverage is seeking a sales license from Howard's Liquor Board, made up of the five members of the County Council.

EVEN IF Total Beverage, the alcohol superstore owned by the Landover-based Dart Group Corp., fails to win approval from Howard County to operate the area's biggest beer and wine outlet in Ellicott City, it will have left its mark.The plan to build a 15,000-square-foot store that would dwarf its competitors in size and merchandise has fused an odd coalition -- a church pastor and fearful mom-and-pop liquor store operators -- and has made state legislators balk at an important proposal to create an appointed liquor board for the county.

U.S.-Japan auto talks may resumeNegotiators from the United States and Japan appeared to make progress yesterday toward resolving a deadlock over the sale of American automobiles and auto parts in Japan, one of the most contentious issues in the strained trade relations between the nations.After a meeting in London between Jeffrey Garten, undersecretary of commerce for international trade, and Sozaburo Okamatsu, his Japanese counterpart, the officials issued a statement saying they had hopes that negotiations on automotive trade could resume next month.